SABER-TOOTHED CATS. 



349 



Elorida, the cave deposits of the Eastern States, from the Indian 

 Territory, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, and elsewhere. It is not at all 

 improbable that within recent geological history more than one hun- 

 dred species of cats have lived within the boundaries of the United 

 States, some of them not becoming extinct until after the advent of 

 man himself. The largest species yet discovered is from the famous 

 bone beds of Phillips County, Kansas, associated with large dogs, 

 rhinoceroses, horses, camels, etc., in the Loup Fork Tertiary. This 

 species, though yet known from very scanty material, has been 

 rightly named Felis maxima by Scott, and it must have measured 

 thirteen or fourteen feet in length. 



While collectively all these extinct species are known as cats, 

 only a few are so nearly related to the living species as to be classed 



SaBEK-TOOTHED ('at (^ILilil'ijihi 



occidentalism Leidy). 



in the same genus Felis; and these few are the most recent of all. 

 It will be remembered that at present only four or five species of cats 

 are inhabitants of IS^orth America — the lynx or wild cat, ocelot, 

 panther or mountain lion, and cougar; the ocelot and cougar found 

 only within the southern limits. Cats are almost always inhabitants 

 of tropical or warm, temperate regions. 



The most remarkable of all the extinct feline animals are those 

 known to naturalists as the saber-toothed cats or tigers, a group com- 

 prising the greater part of all the fossil forms. They date back to 

 the earliest times of which we know anything about the family in 

 North America and reach down to the time of man himself. A large 



